Supporters organise against the Panserraikos board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Vernon de Marco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Omar Faraj falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panserraikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Iva Gelashvili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Omar Faraj falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
0‑1 to Aris Thessaloniki, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Leonidas Siovas to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Kostas Goumas's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Panserraikos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panserraikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panserraikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.41 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Panserraikos and Volos NPS, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Iva Gelashvili has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Vernon de Marco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Andrei Ivan has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iva Gelashvili is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Panserraikos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Leonidas Siovas has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panserraikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Panserraikos have done the hard part with AEK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Iva Gelashvili and Panserraikos agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrei Ivan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Panserraikos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Rodolfo Cardoso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panserraikos can pretend not to have heard.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Everything agreed with Olympiacos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panserraikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Panserraikos asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panserraikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iva Gelashvili is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Kostas Goumas is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Panserraikos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panserraikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panserraikos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iva Gelashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 109 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
1 for Ethan Brooks, marked 7.59, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iva Gelashvili is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Atromitos held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Panserraikos answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Rodolfo Cardoso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Martin Georgiev has come out of that comparison in the side, and Panserraikos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
1‑4 to AEK, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Ethan Brooks delivers — 7.77
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ethan Brooks scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panserraikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Brooks is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonidas Siovas after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panserraikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Iva Gelashvili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan De Irastorza is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kostas Goumas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Panserraikos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panserraikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Jonathan De Irastorza and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ethan Brooks falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It needed Eliandro to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Aris Thessaloniki, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Leonidas Siovas chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panserraikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panserraikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Sep 2026
Giannis Pasas wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Giannis Pasas found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Volos NPS went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Iva Gelashvili and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan De Irastorza is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panserraikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with OFI; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panserraikos can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Panetolikos for Telis Karasalidis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Iva Gelashvili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Brooks is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marios Sofianos has his answer from Panserraikos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The offer went to OFI this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Panserraikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panserraikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Panserraikos asked and Radnicki Nis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ethan Brooks falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Panserraikos, another week without a signature from Giannis Pasas.
Still no offer on the table, and Vernon de Marco’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Panserraikos have made the call to Independiente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.